Perseverance
by CircusofMine
Summary: Beast Boy and Raven confront their biggest fears in this dramatic one-shot.


September 30th, 2013

He walked in the door just like every other night of the week. He pulled off his coat and placed it on the hook right next to the entryway. "I'm home!" he called, slipping his shoes off onto the mat and loosening his tie. He walked up the couple stairs into the kitchen, where he saw her standing at the island. "What's for dinner?" he said, walking up to her. "I'm starving." She turned around.

She was crying.

"Oh my god." He held her close to him. "Are you ok?"

She retreated from his embrace. "I'm fine," she said, wiping away her tears. She was really good at that. She walked over to the fridge. "I'm fine," she re-stated. There was always something wrong when she had to say it twice. She opened the door, releasing a cool blast of air. "What would you like? We have lots of leftover spaghetti, I could make us some salad-"

"Really," He was right behind her, "what's the matter?"

She shut the refrigerator door. She was breathing heavily, but slowly. He knew she was trying to calm down. She always did that when trying to calm down. She quickly moved away from him and started the water in the sink. "Starfire called today," she said, washing the few dished that were stacked in the sink. The man sat down on one of the stools at the island. "She, Dick, and little Luke went to the zoo. She said that Luke kept pointing to all the animals and asking her why Uncle Garfield was trapped in a cage."

He chuckled to himself. He always liked making an impression. He thought about little Luke Greyson, his big, green eyes looking up at him as he held him for the first time. He was so small, so fragile…

"How was your day?" she asked. She always had a way of interrupting him when he was deep in thought.

"It was fine," he said, getting up from his seat. "Just another Monday." He strolled to the other side of the island, picking up a stray coffee mug that he had left there that morning. "Robbie got adopted today."

She turned around and kissed him. The water was still running. "That's fantastic, Gar!" she said when she finally had full use of her lips. "He's been waiting for such a long time."

"I know," he replied. "He's such a good kid, too." He set the mug back down on the table behind him. "He just needed the right people to see it."

"I'm so proud of you, Garfield Logan," she said, her arms still wrapped around his neck. They stood there, staring into each other's eyes, for a moment, only disrupted by the sound of the sink running. Upon realizing this, she quickly turned around and continued her scrubbing. He could still smell the lavender of her hair after she let go.

He walked up behind her, placing his hands gently on the small bump in her mid drift. "And how was your day, honey?"

She stopped, her hands still in the soapy water. "I…I felt a kick."

"You what?!" he asked, stepping back out of shock.

She turned around. "I felt a kick."

"Oh my god that's AMAZING!" he exclaimed, gripping her in his warm embrace. He moved his hands towards her stomach, gently placing them over the bump. "Oh, yeah, there it is! Look at that! It's not even born yet and it's already kicking but." The smile on his face was literally spreading from ear to ear. If he would have looked up, he might have seen the tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

She backed away from him and walked over to the counter, her arms crossed.

"W-what's the matter, Rae?" he asked in his playful tone. "This is a GOOD thing, isn't it?"

She stood there facing the cupboard, her back turned toward her husband.

"Raven." He was more serious now. "What's wrong?"

"I…" She spoke weakly, staring at the gold band that enclosed itself around her ring finger. "I'm scared."

He walked closer, placing his hands on her shoulders. "You're what?"

She turned around. "I'm scared!" she yelled. "I, who have fought hundreds - no - THOUSANDS of super villians, who has destroyed the world AND brought it back again, the SPAWN of a DEMON, is SCARED!" The tears were streaming down her face. She started to storm out of the room.

"Don't shut me out again, Rae." She stopped. "What are you afraid of?"  
She turned towards him. "Look at us!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. "We aren't, in case you haven't noticed, the most NORMAL parents. Do you really think that it has a CHANCE of being normal, either? What kind of people are we to bring that upon a child."

"Star and Dick aren't the most normal parents either, but Luke turned out just fine," he replied, crossing his arms.

"It's different with them!" she yelled. "The most of their worries is that he might have been born with slightly orange skin! Our baby will be one-fourth DEMON, Garfield. How do you think the other kids will handle that at school? It'll be an OUTCAST! It will have NO FRIENDS! And will spend its entire life wondering why nobody will accept it for what it is!" She dropped to the floor, her whole body convulsing with her sobbing.

"Rae," he whispered, moving closer to her. "You know that won't matter." He kneeled down next to her, holding her sobbing form in his arms. "You know that it will be loved by the only two people in the world that matter."

"But I don't know if I can," she said, barely able to get the words out through the sadness.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She cried even harder, burying her face in his chest. "I don't know if I can be a mother."

He held the back of her head close to him, resting his head on hers.  
He thought of his parents. How they had been there one minute, and the next they weren't. "You will be the best mom ever," he said, stroking her purple hair. "I know that for a fact."

"I want to love her," she sobbed. "I want to love her so much." She held on to him tighter. "But I'm so SCARED."

He only sat there, a look of shock on his face.

"…Her?"

She pulled her face off of his chest. "Oh my god." She looked at him with sheer apology, the tears still flowing from her violet eyes. "Garfield, I'm so sorry. I know we said we would wait but I just had to know, I just had to-"

"We're having a girl."

Her face widened into a wet smile. "Yeah," she replied, nodding her head.

He pulled her in towards his chest. "We're having a girl." He held her close, his own tears falling onto her lavender hair. "We're having a girl…"

September 30th, 2017

The three of them walked through the gates of the exhibit entitled "Africa." The 2-and-a-half-year-old immediately ran towards the giraffes, her parents slowly trailing behind.

"They're so…" she said, giving a quizzical look"…yellow."

Her dad laughed. "Not all giraffes are green, you know," he replied. He looked down at the little girl, her dark green hair in the pig tails she so loved to wear. "Do you want to pet it?" he asked.

She looked up at him, her dark-purple eyes beaming from her light gray face. "YES!" Her dad picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. She stretched towards the animal, but wasn't able to reach it. "Move a little closer, Daddy!"

"Be careful, you two," her mother said from behind her husband.

"Don't worry, Hon," he reassured her. "She'll be fine." He carefully walked a little closer towards the fence. The small person on his shoulders stretched her gray arm as far as she could, trying her hardest to reach the large animal. She just couldn't reach-

She touched it.

"It's so soft!" she exclaimed upon making contact with the creature. She stroked it's face, taking great care to not irritate the animal.

Her father stood there, watching his daughter as she pet the giraffe. "All right, squirt," he said lovingly. "Time to come down."

"Awwwwwwwwww." she protested as he slowly removed her from his shoulders and placed her on the pavement. As soon as she hit the concrete, she was sprinting towards another animal exhibit.

"Ilana Arella Logan, you be careful!" her mother shouted.

"There's just no stopping her," her husband commented, coming up beside her and grabbing her hand.

"Remind you of anyone?" she asked with a smile.

"Ha. Ha. Ha," he replied.

She laughed, looking right into his dark green eyes. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he answered, pressing his lips close to hers.


End file.
